organs which could be of no use to him,—as for instance, claws that were not to tear, or incisor-teeth that were not to cut,—we must presume, that if such animals did exist, their forms and endowments must have been very different from what they now are, so that though their general appearance might be similar, they would hardly be the same animals that now bear those names. In fact, the more rational presumption would be, that they did not exist at all, nor come into existence until the fall of man; and that then, when sin first came into the world, new evil dispositions in man put themselves forth in nature, clothed with new material forms; and that then for the first time the fox, the hyæna, and the wolf made their appearance amongst the beautiful things of God's creation. This view receives further confirmation from another prophecy, which we find. in the Scriptures: "No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon; it shall not be found there."[1] Connecting this passage with the one before quoted, which pictures the wolf and the lamb lying down together,—it may be concluded, that in a future happy state of the world, when "the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad, and the desert shall blossom as the rose,"[2] then fierce animals shall lose their noxious character, and sink into a state of tameness and powerlessness to harm, and then at length shall pass away altogether from the earth. Thus, as they had no existence before man sinned, so shall they cease to exist, when his state of sin shall be ended.
Here, however, perhaps, we shall be met by a geological objection. Do not the facts of geological
